Much has been written about Human Capital, especially in the Information Age. More so in fact as the Information Age has evolved into the Internet Age, in which the innovation in products and services has been tremendous and has disrupted tried and tested business models all around the world. Organizations universally hail their people as their number one asset, and in many progressive sectors, these organizations spend billions on the recruitment and nurturing of this asset. Talented humans, as the logic goes, are the source of innovation, advantage, and organizational greatness.

With this logic, many sectors of the economy have moved ahead with remarkable speed. Technology, Healthcare, and Finance are all areas in which the intensive investment in Human Capital has yielded enormous fruit in terms of growth, profit, and innovative advancement. Unwilling to be left behind, “traditional” sectors like Manufacturing, Energy, and Transportation, too, have adopted similar attitudes, programs, and processes to ensure that they optimize their benefit from the maximal use of Human Capital, both internal and external to the organization.

Productivity and Creativity are the keys to this connection between “people-power” and business success. Both of these elements are essential to the development of a progressive, “learning” organization that is able to create and capitalize on new ideas, new trends, and new offerings. It is here, in the combination of two seemingly disconnected or even antagonistic factors, that the conundrum lies: how does an organization manage to both maximize “output” and to pivot creatively? In the common conception, the former is about operational efficiency, and the latter is about artistic license; these two ideas can be in conflict, but great organizations create a space in which both are possible and—you guessed it—technology plays a huge role in this harmonization.

Connection between “people-power” and business success

With regard to Productivity which, put in a different lexicon, implies the ability to produce outcomes at scale, the recent adoption of Machine Learning offers enormous potential. Beneath the technical surface, Machine Learning implies both intelligence and automation powered by data and prediction. In this way, ML allows for intelligent systems in which agility and automation create speed and scale at a heretofore unimaginable magnitude. Advances in both software and hardware allow organizations to avail of the benefits of ML at a manageable cost; as such ML is far more widespread than it was even a year ago and is growing exponentially.

While ML is undergirded by Human Capital insofar as brilliant engineers and scientists are required to create “agility by algorithm,” many believe that it will undercut Human Capital because, frankly, it is too powerful a tool for intelligence and automation. Why do we need humans, they ask, if machines are adaptive and smart? The debate about the extent that ML will either produce or reduce human capabilities and jobs is far beyond the scope of this piece, but suffice it to say that whatever one’s views on the matter, it is clear that the combination of ML and human creativity is the most potent.

A combination of ML and human creativity is the most potent

This is true for a variety of reasons that underpin, the idea espoused at the beginning of this piece, namely that Human Capital and creativity are core sources of advantage. The argument for this is simple-yet-powerful.

First, ML itself is based on human ingenuity. While there are arguments that machines will soon pass the famous “Turing Test,” we are still not at the stage in which human creativity, with its infinite permutations, is replaceable by machine.

Second, given the infinitude not only of ideation and creativity, but of consumer behavior, the acts of “human understanding and empathy” is not matchable by machine. Given that most businesses require products and services that humans, with their seemingly infinite frailties, variations in taste, and temporal behavioral changes, have to buy, the human-to-human connection prevails as the most important source of inspiration. Creativity and empathy provide the motive force, while ML creates the scale and speed required in the modern enterprise. Both are necessary while neither is sufficient.

Third, much of business is built on relationships and not optimal transactions. This point requires no explanation.

Fourth, since presumably ML is an “equalizer” insofar as any relatively solvent organization can pay for platforms that are ML-enabled, people are the differentiator, not systems.

Great organizations emphasize and laud Human Capital but also provide humans with the tools required for massive operational success. ML is just such a tool and when put in the hands of great teams, is the source of sustainable advantage.

Constantine Korovkin is the COO and Co-Founder of Akvelon. He is passionate about excellence in execution, building successful high-tech businesses, project management, exceeding clients and customers expectations in every way.

Bellevue, Wa – OpenCV 3.0 is finally here, and we couldn’t be more proud of our team that helped make this new update the best it has ever been. OpenCV 3.0 is claimed to be the most functional and fastest OpenCV ever.

Open Source Computer Vision (OpenCV) is a permissive free software designed to build efficiency with real-time applications. With more than 9 million downloads, OpenCV is typically used for interactive art, stitching maps on the web, mines inspections and advanced robotics.

Here at Akvelon, we help our clients throughout the world through innovative applications of software. We ideate, define and implement better ways of doing things, which create better processes to achieve better results.

Our very own team – Max Kostin and Evgeny Agafonchikov – worked to bring OpenCV into Windows Runtime realm. Most of OpenCV modules are now available to be used from WinRT CX/C++ code and components. Over 75,000++ lines of code through 15++ pull requests have been contributed and merged in since 2.4 – Remember, this is the most functional and fastest OpenCV to date! Through thousands of tests, OpenCV 3.0 is stable, and behaves successfully on every operating system.

What’s more are the multiple changes in 3.0, one in particular that called out our very own Max Kostin:

There are multiple improvements and bug-fixes for WinRT port (as well as Windows 8.x port) of OpenCV by Microsoft guys (big thanks to Max Kostin)!

In particular, parallel_for is enabled on WinRT, so the code should run much faster on multi-core devices.

Also, the WMF video capturing backend has been greatly improved.

What is WinRT?

WinRT is the application runtime, environment and architecture providing the fundament for Metro apps. Its homogeneous, object oriented cross-language nature and comprehensive security system outlines the evolution of Windows development contrasting with Win32 API written mostly in c-style. WinRT apps are targeting next generation of Windows ecosystem and designed for all types of devices and experiences from touch-friendly tablets and smartphones to laptops and desktop. Its main goal is to provide seamless and continuous experience for all kinds of Windows devices and provide modern cross-language application architecture (C++, C#, JavaScript, etc.) on Windows 8 and Windows 10.

What are the benefits of the WinRT improvements to OpenCV?

Developers can now mix Win8 code – based on WinRT and Windows Runtime for Modern apps – with OpenCV code. If they choose to use their existing codes, they can do that as well. Developers can also use XAML to define the screen layout (using the familiar XAML controls, binding, etc) and combine it with OpenCV code, or directly use the main screen as a drawing surface for OpenCV code. OpenCV can now also run within XAML Phone applications, so developers can use OpenCV in their apps and publish it to the Windows Phone store. As with WinRT, developers can use XAML, OpenCV or a combination of the two.

Thus, our work not only targets Windows 8/8.1, but also provides early access for developers to use OpenCV on Windows 10. This is very important when considering the transformation to Windows 10 and Windows 10 support for many of their internal and external products and technologies.

Furthermore, our latest contribution of open source code to the OpenCV project, completes the relevant OpenCV libraries to enable video modules to run on any modern Windows OS -Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8.1, as well as Windows 10 preview.

OTHER CHANGE LOG HIGHLIGHTS:

BUGS

Over 200 bugs have been resolved/closed. It includes many fixes in docs, build scripts, python wrappers, core, imgproc, photo, features2d, objdetect, contrib modules, as well as some performance improvements etc.

THREADS

Added pthreads-based backend for cv::parallel_for_.

It means that all the parallel processing should be available out-of-the-box on any POSIX-compatible OS, including QNX and such. Try it out!

ANDROID

OpenCV Manager on Android has been completely rewritten in Java and now supports both OpenCV 2.4 and 3.0. After a bit more testing we will put it to Google Play. The other inevitable news – they dropped support for nativecamera on Android.

DAISY

Improved version of rotation-invariant BRISK descriptor and LATCH binary descriptor that outperforms all presently available in OpenCV binary descriptors (ORB, BRIEF, AKAZE etc.) and is comparable with heavier and slower SURF.

GITHUB

Over 80 pull requests have been merged in since 3.0 rc. Big thanks to all the people who submitted bug fixes, new functionality and other small and big improvements! This time special thanks goes to Philip (Dikay900) who did (and still does) excellent job on porting various bug fixes and other small improvements from 2.4 to master/3.0.

2.4 - 3.0 COMPATIBILITY

“opencv2/core.hpp” and other such headers in addition to standard “opencv2/core/core.hpp”.

smart pointers (Ptr<>) can now be created in both 2.4 and 3.0 style (new ClassName(params) vs makePtr<ClassName>(params))

trained and stored stat models from opencv_ml 2.4 can now be loaded and used by opencv_ml 3.0 as-is.

JPEG

Standalone motion jpeg codec has been added to opencv_videoio. It does not need ffmpeg or any other 3rd-party lib. It’s much faster than ffmpeg, especially on ARM. For the decoder you should have JPEG support enabled (through built-in or external libjpeg). The decoder has been verified on such streams (avi files with index, where each frame is encoded using baseline jpeg) and few random motion jpeg clips from net, but we have not tested it thoroughly.

OPENCV HAL

Preliminary version of OpenCV HAL, low-level acceleration API beneath OpenCV, has been introduced. Currently it includes just a few math functions, but will grow soon. It also includes so-called “universal intrinsics”, inspired by NEON=>SSE conversion header. The idea is that one can use a single SIMD code branch that will compile to either SSE or NEON instructions depending on the target platform.

02 Aug The Big Push: Security, Compliance, Governance and the Future of Digital Business

It has become a truism that Digital Business cuts both ways. The benefits of digitization are clear and well documented: organizations get speed, agility and scale and can manage campaigns with more scrutiny than in the analog world. In that way, digitization has been a boon for businesses who are seeking to grow while managing costs and striving to do the most with the available resources.

Digitization has, however, a downside as well. The Internet as a backbone for an organization’s connection to the outside world (customers, partners, media, financial institutions, consumers) is a powerful evolution in infrastructure, but is one fraught with enormous risk. These risks come from both outside the business and within.

In the lexicon of the technology world, these risks can be largely reduced to three ideas: security, compliance, and governance. Each of these three is of massive importance, and each requires the right mix of science and art to administer with success.

“The Big Push”

This trifecta of Digital (IT-based) Business constitutes what I call “The Big Push.” All organizations are pushed to build a framework in which this trifecta is not only manageable now, but in the future as well. This framework has to be absorptive and assimilative- new ideas have to be taken in and, especially in the case of Security and Compliance, have to be able to assimilate new attack vectors and new compliance regimes. Incidentally, neither Security nor Compliance are “predictable” and therefore a good framework takes the “unknown unknowns” and converts them—at least—to “known unknowns.”

“The Big Push” has put Digital Business at a crossroads; in my experience, 90% of organizations need some sort of assistance in navigating through this crossroads to a “safe” place.

Fundamental questions that need to be answered or at least answerable with this framework:

1. Can Business Agility and IT Governance be simultaneously managed and prioritized?
2. Can Heightened Levels of Security threat be managed and accommodated?
3. Can ongoing and often sudden changes in the Compliance regime be managed?

These three questions, if answered in the affirmative, provide a powerful foundation for Digital Business insofar as they reduce the possibilities of blockage and even Digital Disaster.

“The Big Push” has been given to all of us. How ready are we?

Constantine Korovkin is the COO and Co-Founder of Akvelon. He is passionate about excellence in execution, building successful high-tech businesses, project management, exceeding clients and customers expectations in every way.